The City of Buffalo has paid nearly $2 million for health insurance premiums for 152 deceased employees, several of whom have been dead for four years, according to an audit released Thursday.

What's more disturbing, said City Comptroller Andrew A. SanFilippo, is that officials in the city's Human Resources Department were ordered by Mayor Byron W. Brown seven months ago to tighten controls and take new steps to ferret out "systemic problems" that triggered improper payments and other glaring mistakes.

"To be honest, it's a disgrace," SanFilippo told The Buffalo News. "It's a major embarrassment to the city and a $2 million slap in the face to taxpayers."